Country: Morocco
Committee: UNDP
Topic: Eradication of Poverty
Delegate: Marie Schafer
School: Williamston High School
Poverty has been around as long as human existence. It not only affects third world countries, but we find this state of extreme lack of wealth in every single country around the world. Around 1.85 billion people, or 36 percent of the world’s population, live in extreme poverty. Nearly half the population in developing countries lived on less than one dollar, and twenty-five cents a day. Although there is still a lot of poverty around the world, the United Nations has made great strides towards reducing it. Since 1990, a quarter of the world has risen out of extreme poverty. The United Nations has set the goal of eradicating poverty as one of their eight “Millenium Development Goals”. This goal of eradicating poverty doesn’t merely mean simply providing those living with very little resources or money with the necessary items that they need, but rather it means that these impoverished people must be ensured the capacity to live.
Morocco has a very low poverty rate of only 4.2 percent of its citizens considered to be poor. They have made great strides from the year 1998 when 16.3 percent of Mororocans were considered to be in poverty. This number decreased by almost half in the year 2007 with only 8.9 percent considered to be poor. By 2014, this number had taken another great jump to a meager 4.2 percent of the people of Morocco being defined as impoverished. Unfortunately, much of this poverty can be traced to the rural areas of the country, where about 18 percent of the citizens are living in poverty or were once considered to be vulnerable. In 2005, Morocco announced the National Human Development Initiative Support Project (INDH). The project’s $1 million budget and five-year timeline are intended to improve living conditions of citizens, reduce poverty throughout the country, assist vulnerable demographics and support families in dire need. The main problem behind poverty in Morocco is the illiteracy and financial inequity. This makes it difficult for Moroccans to transition out of poverty because of the fact that over a quarter of Morocco’s adult population is illiterate.
Even though Morocco has already made so many strides towards the eradication of poverty, they plan on making so many more. One of the main things that the country wants to focus on is education. This is because Improved literacy levels can reduce poverty drastically. Not only does education lift families out of poverty, but it also keeps them from falling back into it. Children who receive an education attain skills that render them a vital component of the workforce, and it is less likely that they will end up in the 4% of the population that lives in poverty. While this is a long term project, one of the short term ideas that Morocco is looking to implement includes a way to reduce the number of vulnerable jobs. 40% of the jobs in Morocco involve agriculture. This means that more than 40% of the jobs are vulnerable to changing weather conditions. Decreasing the susceptibility of these jobs may further reduce the amount of poverty found across the world.
- Marie Schafer
